Key Arguments

• He personifies human custom as a destructive torrent that sweeps people toward perdition, crossable only by the wood of the cross: "Woe to you, torrent of human custom! ‘Who can stand against you?’ (Ps. 75: 8) When will you run dry? How long will your flowing current carry the sons of Eve into the great and fearful ocean which can be crossed, with difficulty, only by those who have embarked on the Wood of the cross (Wisd. 14: 7)?"
• He criticizes the portrayal of Jupiter as both "thunderer and adulterer" as making vice seem divinely authorized: "Have I not read in you of Jupiter, at once both thunderer and adulterer? ... he was so described as to give an example of real adultery defended by the authority of a fictitious thunderclap acting as a go-between."
• He rebukes the orator’s wish that Homer had attributed divine powers to men, countering that Homer instead attributed divine sanction to vicious acts, so that immorality is no longer recognized as such: "It would be truer to say that Homer indeed invented these fictions, but he attributed divine sanction to vicious acts, which had the result that immorality was no longer counted immorality and anyone who so acted would seem to follow the example not of abandoned men but of the gods in heaven."
• He notes that society throws children into this ‘infernal river’ and even pays fees and public salaries to teach such things, legitimizing them at the civic level: "Yet, you infernal river, the sons of men are thrown into you, and fees are paid for them to learn these things. It is a matter of great public concern when a speech is made in the forum in full view of the laws decreeing that teachers’ salaries be paid from public funds in addition to the fees paid by pupils."
• He mocks the pretext that obscene texts are justified as aids to vocabulary learning, using the Terence example where Jupiter’s seduction encourages a young man’s lust: "It is as if we would not know words such as ‘golden shower’ and ‘bosom’ and ‘deceit’ and ‘temples of heaven’ and other phrases occurring in the passage in question, had not Terence30 brought on to the stage a worthless young man citing Jupiter as a model for his own fornication. ... But what a god (he says)! He strikes the temples of heaven with his immense sound. And am I, poor little fellow, not to do the same as he? Yes indeed, I have done it with pleasure."
• He insists that the argument from vocabulary acquisition has “no force”, since the words themselves can be learned without the corrupting stories, which instead embolden disgraceful acts: "There is no force, no force at all, in the argument that these words are more easily learnt through this obscene text. The words actually encourage the more confident committing of a disgraceful action."
• He distinguishes between neutral linguistic ‘vessels’ and the corrupt content poured into them by teachers: "I bring no charge against the words which are like exquisite and precious vessels, but the wine of error is poured into them for us by drunken teachers."
• He recalls that refusal to drink this ‘wine’ was punished, and that he himself delighted in it and was praised as a promising boy, showing how the system rewards moral corruption: "If we failed to drink, we were caned and could not appeal to any sober judge. Yet, my God, before whose sight I now recall this without the memory disturbing me, I learnt this text with pleasure and took delight in it, wretch that I was. For this reason I was said to be a boy of high promise."

Source Quotes

May I dedicate to your service my power to speak and write and read and count; for when I learnt vanities, you imposed discipline on me and have forgiven me the sin of desiring pleasure from those vanities. For in them I learnt many useful words, but these words can also be learnt through things that are not vain, and that is the safe way along which children should walk. xvi (25) Woe to you, torrent of human custom! ‘Who can stand against you?’ (Ps. 75: 8) When will you run dry? How long will your flowing current carry the sons of Eve into the great and fearful ocean which can be crossed, with difficulty, only by those who have embarked on the Wood of the cross (Wisd. 14: 7)? Have I not read in you of Jupiter, at once both thunderer and adulterer?27 Of course the two activities cannot be combined, but he was so described as to give an example of real adultery defended by the authority of a fictitious thunderclap acting as a go-between.

14: 7)? Have I not read in you of Jupiter, at once both thunderer and adulterer?27 Of course the two activities cannot be combined, but he was so described as to give an example of real adultery defended by the authority of a fictitious thunderclap acting as a go-between. What master of oratory can hear with equanimity a person of his own profession saying out loud, ‘Homer invented these fictions and attributed human powers to the gods; I wish he had attributed divine powers to us’?28 It would be truer to say that Homer indeed invented these fictions, but he attributed divine sanction to vicious acts, which had the result that immorality was no longer counted immorality and anyone who so acted would seem to follow the example not of abandoned men but of the gods in heaven.

Have I not read in you of Jupiter, at once both thunderer and adulterer?27 Of course the two activities cannot be combined, but he was so described as to give an example of real adultery defended by the authority of a fictitious thunderclap acting as a go-between. What master of oratory can hear with equanimity a person of his own profession saying out loud, ‘Homer invented these fictions and attributed human powers to the gods; I wish he had attributed divine powers to us’?28 It would be truer to say that Homer indeed invented these fictions, but he attributed divine sanction to vicious acts, which had the result that immorality was no longer counted immorality and anyone who so acted would seem to follow the example not of abandoned men but of the gods in heaven. (26) Yet, you infernal river, the sons of men are thrown into you, and fees are paid for them to learn these things.

What master of oratory can hear with equanimity a person of his own profession saying out loud, ‘Homer invented these fictions and attributed human powers to the gods; I wish he had attributed divine powers to us’?28 It would be truer to say that Homer indeed invented these fictions, but he attributed divine sanction to vicious acts, which had the result that immorality was no longer counted immorality and anyone who so acted would seem to follow the example not of abandoned men but of the gods in heaven. (26) Yet, you infernal river, the sons of men are thrown into you, and fees are paid for them to learn these things. It is a matter of great public concern when a speech is made in the forum in full view of the laws decreeing that teachers’ salaries be paid from public funds in addition to the fees paid by pupils.29 The river of custom strikes the rocks and roars: ‘This is why words are learnt; this is why one has to acquire the eloquence wholly necessary for carrying conviction in one’s cause and for developing one’s thoughts.’

Yes indeed, I have done it with pleasure. There is no force, no force at all, in the argument that these words are more easily learnt through this obscene text. The words actually encourage the more confident committing of a disgraceful action. I bring no charge against the words which are like exquisite and precious vessels, but the wine of error is poured into them for us by drunken teachers.

The words actually encourage the more confident committing of a disgraceful action. I bring no charge against the words which are like exquisite and precious vessels, but the wine of error is poured into them for us by drunken teachers. If we failed to drink, we were caned and could not appeal to any sober judge.

Key Concepts

• Woe to you, torrent of human custom! ‘Who can stand against you?’ (Ps. 75: 8) When will you run dry? How long will your flowing current carry the sons of Eve into the great and fearful ocean which can be crossed, with difficulty, only by those who have embarked on the Wood of the cross (Wisd. 14: 7)?
• Have I not read in you of Jupiter, at once both thunderer and adulterer?
• he attributed divine sanction to vicious acts, which had the result that immorality was no longer counted immorality and anyone who so acted would seem to follow the example not of abandoned men but of the gods in heaven.
• Yet, you infernal river, the sons of men are thrown into you, and fees are paid for them to learn these things.
• There is no force, no force at all, in the argument that these words are more easily learnt through this obscene text. The words actually encourage the more confident committing of a disgraceful action.
• I bring no charge against the words which are like exquisite and precious vessels, but the wine of error is poured into them for us by drunken teachers.

Context

Book I, sections xvi (25–26): Augustine broadens his critique of his education into an indictment of the wider cultural and institutional embrace of pagan myth and rhetoric, focusing on how such literature distorts moral perception while exploiting the beauty of language.